All Your Loving (Bachelors & Bridesmaids) by Barbara Freethy Page A

honestly.
    "I know he'd like to hear from you."
    "Well, there was a time I would have liked to hear from him," she returned.
    "I know he hurt you and your mom. He made some big mistakes."
    "I don’t really want to talk about him."
    "I understand. Well, if it won't bother your mother to hear my name, tell her that Molly and I think of her often."
    "I will," she promised, thinking that her mother might actually be okay with hearing about Molly and Dale now. Since she'd found love again and had her own personal psychologist helping her to rebuild her life, she'd definitely changed and softened. It was as if love had chipped away at the wall of hate her mother had built up.
    Had she built the same wall?
    She had a feeling the answer was yes.
    After saying goodbye to Dale, she walked out to the parking lot and waited for Matt. As usual, there were groupies around the player's entrance, but she knew now that Matt had another way out and eventually he would make his way to his car. She'd parked a few spots away, so she leaned against her car and waited. As she did so, she sent an email to Dale's assistant with the ticket information for the cook-off. He might have just been trying to be nice, but every ticket sale counted.
    She had just sent the email when Matt walked out to join her. He'd obviously taken a quick shower. His brown hair was still damp, and his face was cleanly shaven. There was a nice musky scent clinging to him, too, which only made him that much more irresistible. He stopped in front of her. "We can take my car and get yours on the way back."
    "They won't close the parking lot?"
    "No, it will be fine."
    "Okay."
    She followed him to his car and slid into the passenger seat. Matt tossed a duffel bag in the back and then got behind the wheel.
    "I saw Dale Howard heading your way," Matt said as he started the car. "How was that conversation?"
    "It was fine. I'm sure you know that he and my father were good friends. Our families did a lot together when I was younger. I was pretty good friends with his daughter Lucy, too. I guess she just had a baby. Time really flies. Last time I saw her she was about fifteen. Now she is married with children."
    "Lucy is a great girl. Her father is also a good guy, and he has an astute eye for talent."
    "Because he picked you?"
    He gave her a grin. "Well, that was one of his best moves." He paused, concentrating on merging onto the freeway for a moment. "Was it hard for you to be in the stadium?"
    "I thought it would be more difficult than it turned out to be," she admitted.
    "That's the thing about fear. Sometimes the monsters disappear when you look at them."
    "Is that why you wanted me to be at the interview?"
    "Actually, I just wanted to see you again."
    She had a feeling his reason was more complicated than that, but she let it go.
    "When's the last time you were at a game?" he asked.
    "At least ten years. The new stadium is a lot nicer than the old one. The seats are closer to the action."
    "And there's nowhere near as much wind. The organization and the city did a great job getting us a new home."
    "Have you ever considered playing for another team?"
    "Every time I come up for contract, I know I can be traded away, but I've been lucky that the Cougars have wanted to keep me and to pay me well. Some of my friends have bounced around from team to team for years. That's hard on the families."
    "My father played for four teams during his career. I think that was part of the problem. My mom didn't want to take me out of school, so we never moved with him. We'd sometimes go to join him in the summer, but even those periods seemed to get shorter as I got older."
    "The job can be hard on the family," Matt said. "But there are usually some perks to ease the pain."
    "Would you go to another team if the Cougars didn't want to renew your contract?"
    "Of course. I'd go anywhere I needed to go to keep playing. This is my career. And I'm going to play it as long as I can." He gave her a quick